Evidence map›Paper›PMID 21380522›Full record

SynthesisIntensive care medicine2011

Serum procalcitonin as a diagnostic marker for neonatal sepsis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Evridiki K Vouloumanou, Eleni Plessa, Drosos E Karageorgopoulos, Elpis Mantadakis, Matthew E Falagas

Open access · bronzeAbstract readSystematic Review
PubMed Publisher
In one paragraph

Synthesis in Intensive care medicine, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 73 papers, 10 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
73citing papers in PubMed, 10 pooled it
17.3field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

73 citing papers in PubMed, 10 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 210 citations in OpenAlex.

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  7. Soluble TREM-1 as a predictive factor of neonatal sepsis: a meta-analysis.Inflammation research : official journal of the European Histamine Research Society ... [et al.] · 2018
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  13. Inter-specialty differences in the management of febrile neonates on prostaglandin E1.Journal of perinatology : official journal of the California Perinatal Association · 2026
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13 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.

Evridiki K VouloumanouAlfa Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Athens, Greece. m.falagas@aibs.gr
Eleni Plessa
Drosos E Karageorgopoulos
Elpis Mantadakis
Matthew E Falagas
Alfa Institute of Biomedical Sciences · GRDemocritus University of Thrace · GR

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

purposeTo assess the value of serum procalcitonin (PCT) for the differentiation between patients with and without neonatal sepsis.

methodsWe systematically searched PubMed, Scopus, and the Cochrane Library for studies evaluating PCT in neonatal sepsis. PCT had to be measured in neonatal blood samples, at the initial presentation of patients with suspected sepsis, before the administration of antibiotics. We performed a bivariate meta-analysis of sensitivity and specificity, and constructed a hierarchical summary receiver-operating characteristic (HSROC) curve.

resultsOverall, 29 studies eligible for inclusion were identified. We analyzed the 16 studies (involving 1,959 neonates) that evaluated PCT in neonates with culture-proven or clinically diagnosed sepsis in comparison with ill neonates with other conditions. The pooled (95% confidence interval) sensitivity and specificity were 81% (74-87%) and 79% (69-87%), respectively. The area under the HSROC curve (AUC) was 0.87. The diagnostic accuracy of PCT seemed higher for neonates with late-onset sepsis (>72 h of life) than for those with early onset sepsis; the AUC for these analyses was 0.95 and 0.78, respectively. However, fewer data were available for late-onset sepsis. High statistical heterogeneity was observed for all analyses.

conclusionOur findings suggest that serum PCT at presentation has very good diagnostic accuracy (AUC = 0.87) for the diagnosis of neonatal sepsis. However, in view of the marked observed statistical heterogeneity, along with the lack of a uniform definition for neonatal sepsis, the interpretation of these findings should be done with appropriate caution.

Indexed as

Intensive Care, NeonatalBiomarkersCalcitoninCalcitonin Gene-Related PeptideHumansInfant, NewbornPredictive Value of TestsProtein PrecursorsSepsisBiomarkersCALCA protein, humanCalcitoninCalcitonin Gene-Related PeptideProtein Precursors

Identifiers

PMID21380522
OpenAlexW1978963455

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.